-You Can't Do
It-
One of the
common themes in this day and age is that you can do anything;
anything you set your mind to do. Somehow, in some way, you can
accomplish goals you otherwise might have thought to be impossible.
There are,
however, limitations to what a human being can do, being a physical
being. You cannot breathe water. You cannot eat dirt and expect to
live long. You cannot quit breathing without making that condition
permanent.
Most
importantly, you cannot “save” yourself. You, as a physical
being, are destined to die. You will someday cease to exist in a
state of consciousness in relation to your body. Even if you,
through science, managed to stop the aging process, and found a way
to regenerate cells and provide for unlimited cellular division or
replication, someday this earth is going to be consumed by the sun,
and eons after that the sun will be reduced to a cold cinder. Even
if you managed to “jump ship” and head off to the stars, looking
for other habitable planets, in time, all will be exhausted. Life,
as we know it, will become a thing of the past. It will be as though
life never happened – a small blip on the radar screen of eternity.
It would all have been in vain. If you are to survive, you must
transcend the physical.
If you are into
metaphysics, you may well conclude that your consciousness continues
on after the death of the body, but what sort of existence is it with
nothing else around you, given that the universe is going to all turn
dark and cold? You might as well envision yourself in a dark cell
somewhere, unable to feel, see, or hear. How long before you snap
and go insane? It doesn't matter... given you have all of eternity
to go nuts.
Working from
the premise that there is indeed a Creator God who not only made the
universe, but life on this planet, which frankly seems more plausible
than a universe popping into existence for no apparent reason or
cause, and created life rather than the statistically impossible
auto-genesis from primordial soup, we read in Scripture that
“salvation” from death is possible.
Sign me up
then. By the way, what's the catch? What do I have to do to avoid
perishing, whatever that is? After all, if I were to exist in that
dark place with no sensations, I would hardly call that life.
Not so fast,
responds God. I created an angelic host – beings created who are
non-physical, and quite a number of them turned to the dark side of
the force, having rejected my love, and I had to evict them from my
spiritual realm, for I will not tolerate discord, and dissidence
among those whom I have created to exist within My spiritual realm.
It's My way, or the bye-way. Those beings rejected following Me.
They decided to place their faith, trust, and alliance on another who
thought he could become like Me, taking over as though he were Me.
This particular being rejected faith in me for faith in himself, and
chaos was and is the result.
This is in part
why I created mankind as physical beings. As such, they can
experience life outside of faith in me, so as to understand and
experience the results of living without Me. They will have
something to compare. The wise will compare, evaluate and
contemplate. Those who are foolish will refuse to place their faith
and trust in me, not unlike those angels who sinned. Those who learn
the lesson of experience during their physical tenure I will exalt
above the angels. Those who reject me, even after having seen the
results of life devoid of My involvement in their lives, will suffer
the same fate as those fallen angels. There is misery in this world
because the world does not know Me.
This God
declares that He truly loves us, and in demonstration of His love,
made Himself like us, and suffered a most agonizing, painful,
tortuous death in an act of reconciliation. For we were indeed
created as physical beings, and subjected to a sinful nature so as to
experience what life is devoid of God so as to better appreciate God
and what He truly offers to us as His gift, which is a gift of great
value.
The angels
didn't have the “benefit” of having experienced life without God
and the consequences of rejecting Him until some of them fell.
God wants to
know now if we are ready to live and walk in faith, totally and
completely. The reality we perceive is that there are many who
profess faith in God and His Christ, yet reject true faith in Him in
favor of self-reliance or partial reliance on someone or something
else.
If there were
to begin with three “arch” angels, Lucifer being one of them, in
charge of a third of the angelic host each, how subtle was the
transformation of faith off of God and on to Lucifer by those angels
who sinned? Did they truly comprehend what they were doing? Could
the process have been so subtle so that they were not truly cognizant
of what was going on?
There are
churches that insist one is saved through faith in Christ, but insist
that only members of their particular church can be saved. How many
people out there truly comprehend this is an example of a faith
divided, which is no faith at all in God/Christ?
In the
Scriptures, we see examples where Christ spoke about salvation based
upon the actions of people, so that, should you truly contemplate
what was said, you would see how He set up impossible scenarios. Yet
the unthinking out there look at those same examples as things people
must absolutely do in order to be saved.
And, behold,
one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do,
that I may have eternal life? ●And
he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but
one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the
commandments. – Matthew 19:16-17
The careless
stop there. Those with a mind-set contrary to true faith are content
to conclude our salvation isn't all about faith in God after all;
that they get to prove they too are like God is God by keeping the
commandments, thereby proving themselves worthy and perfect in that
regard. They get to stroke their own egos. They get to prove they
are better than others. Yet the end of the matter says that no man
is going to be able to save himself by keeping those commandments,
for no one was ever created as a being capable of doing so, besides
Christ, and God is not in the business of creating more Gods like
Himself.
Ye have heard
that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
●But
I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her
hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. ●And
if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee:
for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish,
and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. ●And
if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for
it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and
not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. – Matthew 5:27-30
The next time
you are in conversation with a legalistic type who insists we are
supposed to keep the law, or at least the ten commandments, ask him
(you can change the gender of this debate to suit your conversation)
if they have ever had a sexual thought regarding a woman not his
wife. If he says no, you are talking to a liar. But if he admits
it, then ask him why he has not followed up on Christ's instructions
regarding plucking out one of his eyes, seeing as his compliance with
the command against adultery is not enough, according to Christ, and
even the thought of adultery can send you packing off to hell.
And
realistically, what happens, after you have plucked out an eye,
should you see another woman with your remaining eye, and again have
a lustful thought?
You may well
fool yourself into thinking you can “keep the commandments” but
you really have to stretch your denial in order to believe that
plucking out an eye, or taking off your right hand; just about the
most severe and desperate of acts you can do, will result in you
attaining eternal life. No, even if totally blind, you can still
have sinful thoughts, with the resultant condemnation associated with
an evil imagination.
Jesus stated
these severe things as required for salvation in order to prove
mankind incapable of saving himself. Even the apostle Paul used this
methodology in his writings, stating in Romans that not the hearers
of the law would be justified, but the doers of the law. But what's
the fact here? No one is a doer of the law. This often believed path
to salvation is effectively closed off when confronted with the facts
of life.
Only God can
save you, and all He asks for – all He demands, is your faith; your
total faith, undivided and undiluted.
Otherwise, you
will not believe and follow God, and where will that lead you?
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It is important that you understand; Everything on this blog is based on the current understanding of each author. Never take anyone's word for it, always prove it for yourself, it is your responsibility. You cannot ride someone else's coattail into the Kingdom. ; ) Acts 17:11
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